WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) Federal Advocacy Director and Senior Counsel Ashley Harrington testified at a virtual hearing held by the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions entitled “Slipping through the Cracks: Policy Options to Help America’s Consumers during the Pandemic.”
In her testimony, Harrington discussed the need for actionable policy solutions to protect consumers suffering from the economic downturn, curb predatory lending, and provide access to safe, affordable credit to ensure more Americans can survive this crisis and participate in the recovery to come.
“The financial devastation from the COVID recession has not been evenly shared. The pain has been most acute for Black, Latino, and low-income Americans as well as women – groups that typically had far less of a financial backstop to begin with due to ongoing systemic inequities. Black women and Latinas are especially suffering and currently have the highest unemployment rates of any group,” said Harrington in her testimony. “Federal policymakers have responded with relief that has been both essential to preventing additional widespread suffering in the form of another Great Depression – and also, insufficient in meeting many basic human needs. Lawmakers should be commended for these urgently needed relief packages, including the just-passed American Rescue Plan, but packing it up and calling it a day would ignore the precarious position in which countless families find themselves.”
Read Harrington’s full written and oral testimony and watch the hearing.
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Press Contact: Vincenza.Previte@responsiblelending.org